I've started to play with fondant. It's a new adventure and continues to be so therapeutic!

I LOVE my coworkers. I loved them at E&Y too. It makes spending all day with people so much more enjoyable. I'm also really excited about this new nursing job in particular and have unofficially taken on many employee satisfaction projects to keep the people I love happy at work. Today's project: rap videos. I found myself free styling at the desk a few days ago (inspired by one nurse who can turn any phrase or group of 3 or more words into a song) about Amy's new baby. It sounded pretty good so I wrote it down and then recruited an ensemble of the hottest hip hop stars in the hospital. Hold on tight, this is painfully funny. Amy said she popped a few stitches from her c-section watching it. Oh - PS - the rap is about Amy (my capstone preceptor, mentor, coach and friend), her husband Alex and their 6 day old baby boy, David. We are in the process of coming up with an official group name and taking our show on tour throughout the hospital.

My first fondant cake has made its debut! But, the remnants of powdered sugar make it look dusty. I'm still mastering the technique!

The Baskettes gathered for Natalie's wedding. We are tons of fun. If your family would like to hire us to inject some of this fun into your family events, call 757.619.9216.

Upcoming Election

Normally, I am a pretty apathetic voter. I tend to follow party lines and don't really get all that fired up because once I vote, someone else is left to do the fighting in whatever office they are elected to. I also try to vote absentee whenever I can so that I don't have to stand in line anywhere. Some people say that my vote doesn't count unless the election is close, and I say, that's exactly the point. If my guy is going to lose by so much that my vote wouldn't make a difference, then he or she was not the right person, or didn't run a decent campaign.

Anyway, all of this is to say that this year, amidst all the hot topics on everyone's political radar, the only thing that really matters to me this November is the person who will build proper sidewalks in Charlottesville. That's right. I just want sidewalks. Is that too much to ask?

Why sidewalks? Well, this morning as I was out for my daily run, I was headed down a path against traffic, the direction that runners are supposed to go. Because less than 30% of Charlottesville has sidewalks and there is constant construction, this particular road was barely wide enough for me and vehicular traffic. About 40 yards away, I happened to notice a biker headed in my direction. I planned to step into the road to pass her but I had to wait for a car to pass in the mean time. This created a game of "chicken," if you will, but we were still about 20 yards apart. The girl on the bike moved over as close as she could to a fence bordering the road. As we approached one another I stepped into the road but she got too close to the fence, plowing into it and bouncing off into the road. It was hilarious (Jim, you know how I can't help myself when people fall). I stopped to make sure she was okay, which she was, but when I resumed my run, I couldn't help but laugh. I wonder how many other fences she took out on the way to class. This is a college town. There are lots of pedestrians and lots of cars so if you want to ride your bike to class, you better know what you're doing. Clearly this girl did not. She and her huffy bit it hard.

Perhaps if there was a sidewalk and a bike lane around town, this kind of thing could be avoided. It is very difficult as a runner to find a path that is not congested with slow walkers, bikes and buses around this town. And how are the poor novice bikers supposed to get enough experience to improve their ride if they don't have a safe place to practice. She's lucky there was a fence on her side and not just an open ditch because that is another thing UVA likes to build around town. Ditches.

Thus, this year, the issue at stake is sidewalks. Let's take a stand and build something people can actually use in this town. In the mean time, if you see me running, get out of the way or you're likely to hurt yourself.

Ode to the Stay-At-Home and Working Moms

I've been "off" for a few weeks now. Graduation came and went, the NCLEX has been conquered, Colorado wedding complete. So time to just sit back and relax right? Um, not so fast. I have been busier this week than ever before and it gives me such a greater appreciation for all the moms (and dads) out there who are running households. I have 24 kids. They are grown, which means they can dress themselves and generally feed themselves. Although sometimes feedings happen at 3am which automatically negates all teaching on clean-up that has previously occurred. Even when feedings happen at normal meal times, my kids drop crumbs, chunks, liquids that dry or congeal on the floor. But I love them.

This week has been especially busy for some reason. I had a meeting at the school of nursing Monday morning, hit the gym, took my computer to get fixed again, meeting with our caterer to discuss how things are going and to make changes in our meal plan, come home, unload the dishwasher, take out the trash, take out the recycling, clean up lunch that was left on the counter - pack it all up, throw away undesirables, clean out the refrigerator so the new food fits, get the Dustbuster out to pick up crumbs, put away pans left out from late night brownie baking, change a light bulb, squeeze in a load of laundry including all the dishtowels that were crusty with leftover chili from the day before, and test all the smoke detectors for inspection.

I thought the rest of the week would settle down but then the A/C on the 2nd floor went out so the repair man came at 7pm, right as I was supposed to be at happy hour with my new kickball team. The squirrel in the attic on the 2nd floor is scratching like crazy so it's time to have him removed. Call friends who might know how to build a trap and then just give in and call Critter Control. "There are bugs in my room!" Call pest control to get rid of stink bugs. Oh and we need toilet paper, but I can't be at Sam's club buying TP when I have to be at home waiting for the pest guy and a phone call from the city inspector. Unload the dishwasher, clean up lunch, dinner, and late night snacking. Then the caterer emails one of my collegians to tell her that he is only providing 1/2 the amount of BBQ he donated for their philanthropy event this weekend. So I put on my running shoes and go down there, all sweaty, to let him know that Indian giving for Charity events is completely unacceptable. I am a very protective mama bear and you better not cross my girls! He agrees to be a decent human being and apologizes for his "brain fart."

Get car inspected. I was sure that this would result in an absurdly expensive repair of some sort, but to my delightful surprise, all it needed was a $1.00 light bulb. I'll take the win. Social dance - finish off the rumba with the random people in my class. That story deserves its own blog post. Kickball happy hour, clean out the fridge again. Bake and decorate cakes for birthdays and baby showers. Buy gifts for baby showers. Plan surprise birthday party. Arch's with girlfriends. Ahhh. And they have grasshopper flavor. The best part of my week! Gym, dishwasher, sweep, pick up cups and cans in dining room. Go to the bank, cook macaroni and cheese dinner for 24, chaparone date function (ok that was last week), drive girl home from date function due to fight with drunk boy, dance it off at zumba, 6:15am cycle, wipe down counters, fix ice machine, sam's club run for aforementioned toilet paper, cleaning supplies, and miscellaneous house supplies. Sort mail, fold blankets in tv room, pick up shoes left in tv room, investigate leaky shower, research and purchase liability insurance.

I'm not complaining. I love this life. I signed up for it and it gives me great joy. It just makes me realize how much it takes to a)run a home b)raise children and c)balance your life. I'm hoping that I can manage to do "C" when I start work next month. In the mean time, here's to all you homemakers and working parents out there. Your kids really do appreciate all that you do even though they don't say it!

I know it's been awhile since I returned home from an awesome trip to Colorado, but I've been mourning the loss of all my pictures from the trip and thus have delayed this blog post. Some fluke accident fueled by a computer that has been causing me headaches for months now randomly deleted all of my pictures. Lost forever. I guess that's the tragic flaw of the digital world. Thankfully, it was a wedding so lots of people took pictures of the weekend. I have lost everything prior to the wedding, but that just means I'll have to plan another trip to Colorado to redocument everything!

A little background...I flew out to Colorado for the wedding of Katie and Steve Nauman. I lived with Katie for two amazing years in Denver and when I moved east to begin nursing school, she moved west to San Diego to be in the same city as Steve. You've seen pictures of my trips to San Diego for vacation and the bachelorette weekend...is it coming back yet? Anyway, they are incredible friends and have inspired me to do so many things that I may never have tried - like cake decorating, running, making check box lists, fixing things myself, and generally being more adventurous. I was Katie's bridesmaid for this wedding and I couldn't have been more honored to stand in support of this couple. I've been in weddings before, but never have I had such a strong friendship with both the bride and the groom. It's really amazing to understand the love between these two from seeing it first hand, not just hearing about it from my girlfriend. So, cheers to Katie and Steve, may you have a long and fruitful marriage! Love you:-)